Question:
I have a funny relationship with literature. I always loved reading and during my teens I devoured the complete works of Oscar Wilde and Thomas Hardy before turning to heavier fair, such as JP Sartre's Roads to Freedom trilogy and (regrettably), Franz Kafka's Castle, which I slogged through, only to find he hadn't finished it. Grrr.
Then I went to uni and studied philosophy. I was so fed up with all the weighty tomes I had to read (Hegel, Kant, Heidegger, you name it) that my brain rebelled and I read nothing but sci-fi, fantasy and horror for the next 10 years.
(If anyone likes horror but prefers a well-written and clever book, try Christopher Fowler or Kim Newman.)
Non-scifi/horror/fantasy books I've enjoyed:
Perfume (Patrick Suskind) - of course, you've all read this. I read my mother's copy when I was in my teens or early 20s and loved it - I keep meaning to get my own copy so I can read it again.
An Instance of the Fingerpost (Iain Pears) - a historical murder mystery set in Cromwell's era and told from four points of view. Clever, and well worth a read.
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) - obviously a classic, and deservedly so.
The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) - Just a wonderful, compelling and haunting book. A modern classic.

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Must add also these:
Pamela des Barres: I'm with the Band
Boy George: Take It Like a Man
Jean Stein & George Plimpton: Edie - an American Biography
The Life and Times of Little Richard
Angie Bowie: Backstage Passes
Legs McNeil & Gillian McCain: Please Kill Me - The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
Lemmy: White Line Fever
Mötley Crue: The Dirt - Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band

Answer:
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Amazing Grace - Jonothan Kozol
Sufi Sage of Arabia - Mustafa Badawi
Amusing Ourselves to Death - Neil Postman
La Casa de los Espiritus - Isabel Allende
What Uncle Sam Really Wants - Noam Chomsky
Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife - Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
Libro de poemas - Julio Cortazar
Dune - Frank Herbert
Each one of those books has had a profound impact on my life.

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Anything by Francois Mauriac - I have read most of his work.
Thomas Mann - ditto, although I haven't gotten through Dr. Faustus.
Years ago went through Milan Kundera and Jerzy Kozinsky.
on a lighter note:
Patricia Cornwell
Other crime/mystery - true and fiction, as along as it's well written.
John LeCarre when he was still doing the British spy stuff. Not lately.
Anything by Hungarians

Answer:
Originally Posted by vezerne Anything by Hungarians Who, for instance? Just curious.
Don't worry, I'm not challenging you or anything.

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Good lord, why do people think I would take offense??? I didn't mention them because I didn't think they would be interested or familiar. Here goes:
Krudy Gyula - because he's the epitome of late 19th/early 20th century Budapest, and funny as s--t in a dark sort of way.
Karinthy Frigyes - very funny in a very cynical Hungarian way.
Mikszath Kalman - historical genres
Szabo Lorinc - poetry
I read them in Hungarian, but just to be clear that I'm not a bs'er, I do need a dictionary to catch everything. P.S. The authors are listed last names first as is standard in Hungarian. Unfortunately, not much is available in translation, but I recommend them if you can find something.

Answer:
Originally Posted by Nicolas V What Uncle Sam Really Wants - Noam Chomsky I absolutely love Chomsky. He's a hero of mine. I haven't read that particular one, though. I have a bunch of the stuff he's released on CD. You should read some Howard Zinn as well, it's very good and enlightening.
Some of my favourite books -
Nine Stories by Salinger
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald
The Sufferings of Young Werther by Goethe

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The Language Instinct, Steven Pinker
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
White Noise, Don Delillo
The Power of Babel, John McWhorter
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
The Magus, John Fowles
anything by Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, PD James
All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy

so many. those are my favorites i think.

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Yes, quimpus! Love PD James and John Fowles,too.

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Dry White season: Andre Brink
Lord of the rings: J.R.R Tolkien
Anything by Salman Rushdie
Also love Simone de Beavoir's books in general
Enjoy Hamsund,Isabelle Allende and The Sandman books(ok,comic books...but still!)Last ,but not least: all the Narnia Books by C.S Lewis.
Guess I enjoy fantasy books or weird stories